Middle school chiller working, food services reports increased participation and local-produce grants

District administrators reported on building operations, student programming and food services.

Hausland Middle School (presented by Michael Denney) said a newly installed chiller worked through the fall and greatly reduced classroom temperature complaints; the building’s vestibule and key-card systems are operating, and the building is open more hours for community and team use. Sixth grade camp received a $5,000 grant to offset costs and may receive additional funding for a spring session. Denney said a garden-club project will add roughly 30 raised beds near portables to expand science and community work.

Food services director Darlene Morrow recapped a July conference and described the district’s participation in a monthly OSPI “Power Up Your Program” nutrition-education cohort. Morrow said the district serves about 1,500–1,600 meals per day, reported 100% results on surprise inspections by the Ben Franklin Health Department at all five schools, and said breakfast participation is up (58% increase at an elementary strand; ~25% increases at the middle and high school). Morrow said USDA/local-produce funding included a $14,000 award this year for local produce and meats and an $8,000 allocation planned for 2026–27; an intern from CW will join the program Nov. 10 for six weeks to support nutrition-education goals.

Other reports: the planetarium visited Mabton for outreach; the district worked on recovery accounting to move expenditures to appropriate grants and increased the basic education fund balance by about $215,000 through allowable grant reallocations; the district continues to refine payroll and supplemental-pay processes and is implementing a district-level planning tool to model budget impacts of changes to contracts or staffing.